RESCUE PACKAGE:THE €85 billion rescue package which the State is negotiating with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund is likely to be unveiled tomorrow, according to a Government source.
The source said negotiations have been intense and the timetable is tight but the indications were that the deal would be brokered ahead of the markets reopening on Monday.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan is being briefed regularly on progress of the talks, and has had periodic meetings with the representatives of the three outside agencies: the EU Commission, the European Central Bank; and the IMF.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has not yet met officials from the bodies but is expected to do so over the course of the weekend as the talks near conclusion.
The package is expected to include details of the portion of the bailout package that will be allotted in fiscal support to the State, and how much will be given to the banks.
According to another Government source, more than half the sum will be given to the State, with the remainder going to recapitalise the banks, to enable them have very large reserves, or “firepower” as Mr Lenihan has described the funding. It is understood that a portion of this funding may come from the State’s own reserves, possibly the National Pension Reserve Fund.
Separately, a spokesman for Green Party leader John Gormley has said that he was incorrect to state in the Dáil that the EU Commission had insisted a cut in the minimum wage be included in the Government’s four-year plan.
During heated exchanges with Fine Gael’s environment spokesman Phil Hogan, Mr Gormley said the Fine Gael’s pledge to renegotiate the minimum wage was nonsensical.
“That, I am afraid, is completely nonsensical because this was the first demand of Olli Rehn and others that this had to be in the plan,” said Mr Gormley.
However, his spokesman said yesterday that Mr Gormley had been involved in verbal cut-and-thrust with Mr Hogan and had been not been solicitous in his use of language and had conveyed the wrong impression.
“The four-year plan was the Government’s own work. It’s clear that Mr Rehn and the other agencies had views on the minimum wage but those views did not influence the plan,” he said.
Yesterday, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions told the European Union and International Monetary Fund delegations that Ireland did not have an inexhaustible capacity for dealing with its debt.
Congress president Jack O’Connor said the meeting was “a very good engagement”.